You're new, so the risk of making a mistake is higher. Our lack of knowledge puts us at a disadvantage. At the beginning of your entrepreneurial clothing brand journey, take the time to learn the tricks and do things yourself.

For example, you can go out and hire marketing teams and publicists, and others to run your Google, Facebook, or other social media ads. Someone else then makes your product, because you don't know exactly what deliverables you need or what you should get in return for the amount you pay. You are in a vulnerable position and risk being taken advantage of.

When service companies don't perform, they tell you it's your fault. Often you don't know what you're doing right or wrong. You could have done everything right, and they could have done it badly, but you don't know. How a lack of knowledge can bankrupt you before you even start a business.

Managing a team is different from setting it up and forgetting about it

Start-up clothing brands think factory partners will solve their problems and fill in their knowledge gaps. But most of them don't.

If you're in the swimsuit business, you should have a swimwear manufacturer that you can trust, that has a quality control team and a design team, and that delivers on time, and you should know the process, and you should know as much as possible about the details and what happens, and you should know how your team handles it.

Factories will not solve your lack of manufacturing and supply chain education. In some cases, they will be amplified by it. If you tell a factory to do something, they will do it. If you tell them they're wrong, you better believe they're going to be wrong. Because factory work is to do what you tell us to do. Not correcting your mistakes.

Salespeople are sometimes better at selling themselves than your products

If my friend had tried to do her sales instead of working in a showroom from day one, she would have been in constant dialogue with potential buyers and getting real feedback from them. Maybe they're looking for tops because no one has good tops that season, or maybe what they want is a rainbow print. Who knows?

The point is, she doesn't either, she relies on others to provide her with information that doesn't have her best interests at heart. That's why it's important to do things yourself first and then hire someone else.

If she gets an order herself and does well on her own, she'll know they have a problem when that showroom doesn't sell back after the first season. It's not her. And she didn't have to take them at their word when they told her that her start-up clothing line would take off if she just made a few changes.

Everyone is sharing their work because they're going to get paid anyway

You need to have your own skills How to choose a bikini manufacturer. Suppliers swoop in, steal your money, and ship super junk that you think will do a better job than they end up doing. 

But thanks to the Internet and cancellation culture, there are fewer of them around. However, there seems to be a growing number of unhappy customers in the industry, or at least in the business of start-up clothing brands.

You rely on their expertise when you hire an agent or consultant to do all of your purchasing. As my customers know, I treat their products as if they were my own. I'm fucking anal, I think five steps ahead, which is annoying to most people, but completely necessary in this business.

They just don't care about the overall health of your business. You hire them, they do their job, and if they need to do it again, they'll make sure you pay them again, and then they do it again. At the same time, you see your bank account getting lower and lower.

I've seen this happen with a lot of new brands.

Now let's go back to where we started. To be fair, sometimes brands communicate poorly, which is why there are so many problems. But sometimes they hire people who simply don't care about the success of the customer or the brand.

Talking about the blame game

In the supply chain, the fabric goes from the fabric supplier to the printer and then to the factory.

Fabric suppliers weave or weave fabrics. The printer then prints the fabric and sends it to your factory to be cut and sewn into clothing. Usually three separate companies. Fabric suppliers will blame the printers. The printer is to blame the factory. Factories will blame others below them.

The only person responsible for what went wrong is you

I don't recommend anyone approve based on photos. All approvals should always be done in person. But sometimes, for whatever reason, you need to break the rules. With the approval we are doing, we are very confident that we will be able to see any flaws or problems in the pictures.

No matter how good someone is or how well recommended, you always have to be on top of your game, checking and double-checking everything. She learned her lesson on a very small order; She will never let that happen to her again, and as her orders get bigger, they will help her protect herself.

What should you consider before selling swimsuits? Your job is to cross your t's, hit your i's, and make sure everything is exactly how you want it to be.

What, are you prepared for the storm ahead? I wish you all the best!